Welcome to the ShoreTel Brilliantly Simple Blog

The goal of UC is to provide a single interface through which users can access a wide range of communications options, including voice, instant messaging, email, conferencing and more. But an oft-heard question is, “How can we get the most out of our system.”

And from a general perspective, that’s really easy.

Actually use the tools.

We’re all familiar with voice. It’s represented by the phone we stare down at while trying to multi-task toward completion on all of our daily work. But it’s also often the most efficient way to solve a problem – and certainly easier than 27 back and forth emails.

Of course it’s also quite popular when getting a group together to collaborate.

But if you only have a quick question, IM is there to offer you a productivity boost. With presence, you can instantly see the status of the person you’re trying to communicate with, speeding completion of the conversation.

Start an instant conference and suddenly everyone on the phone – hardwired, softphone, conference bridge audio mic, or mobile – can see a shared screen. Now we’re all discussing the same document.

If you need to be face-to-face even if you’re not right there, users can participate in room-based videoconferences using industry standard H.264 AVC technology using ShoreTel Communicator. This enhanced video support enables users to communicate from their desktop or laptop, whether in the office or working remote, adding a new level of simplicity to productive collaboration and allowing you to avoid the “invisible person” syndrome – where no one remembers you’re the one colleague on the phone.

Unified communication tools provide the perfect solution for appropriate escalation as you move through the modalities: Check a person’s status, fire off an IM. Click on the phone icon or start a web conference before sending that recap email – one chock full of information everyone now agrees upon.